The isolation helped me to prepare the escape plans, in other words, I looked for ideas to go for a walk somewhere else except of Vexin, in Île-de-France. I thoroughly examined every inch of the google maps and photographs, and made a list of things I would like to see. When the confinement became milder, I visited Saint-Prix, a small town just nearby the famous Montmorency Forest, to the nord of Paris, in Val d’Oise. When the weather is sunny, it’s like a small Switzerland, and it is a good option for a not very long walk not very far from Paris (25 minutes by train from Gare du Nord).
Last Sunday I took another direction – to the south-east of Paris. I took the train doing to Provins from Gare de l’Est. In about 40 minutes it stoped at Mormant. From the railway station, it took me two hours walking to the south, where I expected to find a fortified medieval farm dating back to the 13th century. And I found it. There where only pigeons, ducks and me, and it was beautiful.
The farm is called le fief des Époisses. I think the peak of its glory was in the 70s, when it was in possession of the Maire of Mormant Mr. de Wulf, who transformed the farm into a place for musical events. Mstislav Rostropovich gave a concert here one night in 1975, and up to a thousand of people came from France, Belgium and Switzerland to listen to him.
It was later sold to the society Bis which accomplished the restoration works here in order to create a museum of agriculture. This dream didn’t come true. The farm is now closed to the visitors as private property (but is still visitable from outside). As it is the case of so many small historical buildings in France, it has become a place for meetings and seminars.
How to survive in Paris 